A New Perspective: Ireland's Night Sky
While in Ireland, I was able to gain a perspective on how this country utilizes light, and how much light pollution is given off here. I traveled to many different areas of Ireland, including Dublin, Limerick, Inch, the Ring of Kerry, Adare, Killkenny, Cahersiveen, Galway, and more. Our stay for the trip was in the Adare manor, in the small village of Adare. After sunset, I gathered some photographs of some of the light fixtures they had.
This is a photograph (above) of one of the main streets in the small town of Adare, inside of Limerick County. This photograph actually shows the light to be much brighter than it actually was in person. As you can see, many of the buildings close early at night, or do not have any outdoor lighting. The only lighting on at this time of night (approximately 10pm,) was street lamps and a few business lights on the pubs. Of course, in Ireland, the pubs and bars are the only thing open this late at night!
Again, this photograph is MUCH lighter in appearance than in was in person. This shows the entrance to a bar where the light is contained inside an entry way, and not outside to shine into the sky.
This photo shows Cahersiveen, a town along the "Ring of Kerry" in southwestern Ireland. My point in capturing this photo was to show the lack of lighting (aside from a few sidewalk lamps) on the buildings and roads. Many of the lamps were older and did not have LED lighting, but they did aim light downward with fixtures that had covers/shades upon them.
Above, another picture of the same street from another angle.
This photo better captures the actual lighting given off in a smaller Irish town. Though lack of lighting may present some safety issues in some places, the light pollution here was very minimal.
Another photograph displaying a lack of excess lighting.
Old fashioned homes in Limerick, Ireland. No excess or unnecessary lighting was to be found on most homes.
Most importantly, I was able to visit the Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve, a GOLD standard Dark Sky park located in Kerry, Ireland. On that clear night, I saw the most vivid, clear, incredible view of the universe. Not only were millions of stars visible, but I could also see the milky way galaxy. The reason that this reserve is "gold standard" is due to the absolute lack of accessory lighting in the small towns that dot the Ring of Kerry. Unfortunately, not only was my phone dead, but the quality of the photos taken by the people I was with (by their cell phones) was not adequate for posting onto this blog.
In the smaller villages (and Especially in the Ring ofKerry) there was very little lighting, and the lights were usually very dim (perhaps because they were older fixtures,) and either pointed downward or had a hood to angle the light away from the sky. Very few lights in these older, smaller villages appeared to be LED, but they did not look like they polluted the sky either. Many of the light fixtures had beautifully designed hoods on top that were probably vintage. Many of the shops and businesses had window covers and door entrances that blocked light from shining upwards and out of the buildings as well. Quite a few buildings had distended roofing to aid in this too.
In the larger, more densely populated areas of Ireland such as Dublin and Limerick, there were more LED and neon lights hanging up around bars, hotels and other businesses. Again, many of the hotels and businesses either did not have bright lights shining through their windows, or they had a means to direct the light downward. I was very impressed by this. Although there were many bars open in Dublin over the weekend while I was there, everything was pretty dark inside, and the street lamps themselves did not shine very brightly. Although this might be a problem for pedestrian safety, it seemed that Dublin had its light pollution well under control. A. Ikegami
